NJ Education Report

James Harris, President of the NJ NAACP has come out against the Opportunity Scholarship Act, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Regarding the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, which allows a small number of children to cross district boundaries to higher-performing school districts, he said, “It would be interesting to see how many of these predominantly white school districts will welcome students from districts like Camden.”

The NJ Senate will vote tomorrow to give the Legislative Oversight Committee subpoena power so it can force the Christie Administration, including Bret Schundler, to testify over our Race To The Top loss, says the Star-Ledger.

From the same article: “Senate Democrats Friday released records received from the state Department of Education, including one e-mail that showed a member of the Wireless Generation consulting team reviewed the incorrect answer before the deadline.”

Check out Democrats for Education Reform’s new white paper, “Bursting the Dam: Why the Next 24 Months are Critical for Education Reform Politics.”

NJ Spotlight reports that during this summer’s release of standardized test scores “the state without explanation pulled back the elementary school language arts scores delivered in July and released new, slightly higher ones in the waning days of August.”

SAT scores in NJ (and nationwide) are relatively static.

Don’t miss Rick Hess’s column at EdWeek on the “buy-in tar pit.”

Also, see Steve Malanga in the Wall St. Journal on how recent events in NJ illustrates the waning power of public unions.

Rep. Scott Garrett on NCLB, RTTT, and other federal educational initiatives in New Jersey Newsroom: “It’s time to return to the system our founders envisioned. It’s time to return education policy back to the local communities. It’s time to start putting our children first.”